NLA Question: Testing and Accountability in Adult Literacy

[David J. Rosen]

NLA Colleagues,

As an appendix to  Tom Sticht's "Testing and Accountability in Adult
Literacy Education,"

    http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/sticht/testing/cover.htm

is a review done by Gregg Jackson in 1995 of eight of the most widely
used standardized assessments in adult education.

    http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/sticht/testing/page88.htm

I have several questions for Tom Sticht and Ron Pugsley regarding these
assessments:

1.  Tom, is this the most up-to-date independent, comprehensive review
of standardized assessments for adult literacy/basic education/ESOL ?

2.  Tom and Ron, Gregg wrote that there are hundreds of standardized
tests, but only a few developed for ABE and ESL. Do you think that as
a field we have a full range of high quality standardized instruments,
or does more work need to be done in this area?  Do we have a good set
of tools to answer the questions Congress has posed with the WIA/AEFLA ,
or not yet?

3.  Tom and Ron, as I read these reviews, I am not greatly impressed
with the quality of some of these tests.  Some  have published data on
their validity; some don't.  Some include reliability data; some
don't.  Few appear to me to meet the standards of reliability and
validity we have come to expect of tests used in K-12.  Would you agree,
or not?  Just because a test is widely used does not, in my view, make
it valid and reliable, only popular.

4.  Finally, if either of you think we do need to develop new valid and
reliable assessments, including tests and performance-based instruments,
how will this happen?  Where will the funds come from to support these
efforts which, as I understand it, usually take years of precise work by
trained psychometricians?

I believe there may be others on the NLA list who have a background in
measurement, and  who might like to answer these questions.  If so, I
would be interested to have your views, too, on any or all of them

David J. Rosen
<DJRosen at world.std.com>